Grand Theft Tank: Tankers From Ukraine’s Azov Brigade Grab Top-End Russian T-72B3M

Troopers from the Ukrainian combat unit the Kremlin loves most to hate, the Azov Brigade, grabbed one of Russia’s most modern tanks and drove it off the battlefield in a high-risk combat raid.

Drone video published by the controversial unit, formally called the 12th “Azov” Special Purpose Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, showed two Azov fighters clamber aboard an abandoned Russian T-72B3M tank, crank up its engine, and head for friendly lines.

Fact-Checks by Kyiv Post with Azov Brigade official spokespersons, individual members of the unit, and materials published by the adjacent 95th Air Assault Brigade confirmed the nighttime snatch-and-grab took place largely as reported widely in Ukrainian media.

According to those accounts, the incident took place on April 7 following a failed Russian armored assault to the east of the village of Terny, in a northeastern section of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.  Elements of the Azov Brigade had been deployed in the sector since Fall 2023.

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Images published by the adjacent 95th Air Assault Brigade showed a Russian armored column of 15-20 tanks and infantry fighting vehicle driving across mostly bare terrain before coming under artillery fire, and then being hit with swarms of FPV drones and anti-tank missiles.

Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) statements claimed at least 11 Russian vehicles were knocked out or burned in the April 4 ambush. Video published by the 95th Brigade, and reviewed by Kyiv Post, shows at least 16 Russian tanks or armored personnel carriers moving along a dirt road and attempting to deploy in terrain geolocated to farm fields some two kilometers east of the Terny village.

One of the tanks attempts to escape but the crew abandons the vehicle after colliding with a BMP armored infantry carrier, the video shows. FPV drones reportedly later hunted down and killed the three crewmembers.

Night-time video recorded over the same battlefield shows two figures climbing into the tank, later identified as a late-model T-72B3M. The engine visibly starts, and the tank later is shown to be driving into the Ukraine Armed Forces (AFU)-held village of Terny, at the approximate grid 49.089574, 37.969339, Kyiv Post review found.

A YouTube video published by the Azov Brigade on April 7 identified and showed interviews with fighters with the battle call signs “Tenor” and “Baydar”, who took credit driving the Russian vehicle to Ukrainian lines in a nocturnal raid taking place in no-man’s-land.

The Russian tank was damaged in daylight fighting from an explosion but once the driver’s compartment was cleaned out and batteries were replaced, the vehicle started and drove back to Ukrainian lines without problems, the Ukrainian tank operator Baydar told an interviewer.

Sappers preceded the raiders on the night April 5-6 to clear the route to the tank and the vehicle itself for booby traps, and the following evening infantry secured the area for the Ukrainian tank mechanics to board the vehicle, repair it, and drive it away, Tenor, a tank company vice commander, told an interviewer.

Field operations including reconnaissance, planning, repeated visits to the tank, and transport of a 70 kg tank battery – by men on foot more than a kilometer - to the vehicle took the better part of three days, with dozens of soldiers and technicians involved he said. Russian forces did not interfere with the evacuation, but once inside Terny the operators drove the T-72 into a deep bomb crater and almost got stuck, images showed. Tenor said some 35 shells hit around the village during the evacuation.

The T-72B3M (M=modernized, Russian-модернизированный) is the Kremlin’s standard first-line main battle tank. Costing a reported $2.5 million a vehicle and first fielded in 2022, the weapons system boasts anti-tank missiles fired through the cannon, updated reactive armor, a Relikt defense system designed to destroy incoming missiles and drones, and a new diesel engine putting out almost twice the horsepower (1130 HP) of previous models.

According to the manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, sensors and fire control computers onboard the T-72B3M allow it to reliably hit a moving target at ranges above two kilometers with the first shot.

Since 2014 Russian Federation state information platforms have pushed the narrative that most members of the Azov Brigade are neo-Nazis and extremist Ukrainian nationalists. Independent news platforms including Kyiv Post have found little compelling evidence to support the Kremlin claims. A primary plank of Azov ideology, dating back to Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, is absolute Ukrainian independence from Russia. The view is anathema to Moscow.

According to Azov statements, the captured T-72B3M can be fully repaired and will be assigned to the brigade tank battalion for combat service against its former owners.